#TipforTuesday: Backup plans

Picture this: You’re in the middle of your third lesson and everything is going to plan. The student loves your hand puppets, they’ve mastered the short u vowel sound, and you’ve just received an excellent piece of homework. BUT disaster strikes - you get a power cut. What do you do?

This situation, as well as general internet failure, is likely to happen at some point in your online teaching career and it can feel out of your control. However, with careful preplanning, you can be ready for such situations. We’re compiled the best ways around these situations with a little help from our Buddies. Make sure that you tell IQBar right away if your area has planned power outages

What happens if my internet or power goes out during teaching?

We understand that this can happen, particularly for Buddies living in South Africa or other countries which experience frequent power shortages. We ask Buddies to try to find solutions when possible however, if it is impossible to continue teaching, such as living in the middle of nowhere or both 3G and wifi being down, you will not be fined for the classes, however you will not be paid for the sessions/contracted hours. Let us know as quickly as you can about your situation, we may ask you to provide evidence such as a picture of your lighting if you have a power outage.

What to do if…

WiFi Failure / Outage

The benefit of this modern era is the prevalence of mobile internet. In the event of a wifi outage, make sure you have enough date on your phone so if you need to, you can tether it. Many networks now provide mobile data as good as a wifi network so there really is no excuse if your internet goes out.

For Buddies living in South Africa, Marion offers this advice:

“If you are with a network like Cell C then get a backup with MTN or a cell service of your choice. If you have an LTE Sim you can get as much as 17 mbps up and about 8 mbps down. I am with Afrihost who work with MTN and my backup is with Cell C.” Marion

Power failures can be a little more tricky than internet shortage but fear not! We have some suggestions for you:

Relocate to a friend/family member’s house

The one positive about power failures is that they are normally localised so a nearby neighbourhood will continue to have power. Speak to friends or family who live in the area beforehand and find a place where you can go in the eventuality of an outage.

“I’m lucky that my partner’s parents live about 10 minutes aways. They’ve said that if ever there is a power cut in my area I can always go there to teach”

If you have a laptop, make sure it has a high percentage of battery throughout teaching

“I don’t let my mac get lower than 50% as I can generally get 8 lessons out of that... Then use phone for internet for day” Sarah W

This way, if you have enough daylight you can continue teaching at home until power returns.

Our Buddy Alessandro says:

“A solution could be to go and buy a power bank from a local IT store if this regularly happens. Some of them are quite affordable, and if the power did have to go, they could plug their WiFi router into this power bank.”

So there are a few tips for what to do when technology fails you. We hope you’ve found this useful and know what to do in case of a failure.

Buddies? What is your backup plan for such situations? Let us know by emailing socialmedia@iqbar.co.uk or commenting below!

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At IQBar, our aim is to offer a high quality online teaching experience to all of our students, whether it is English conversation practice or utilising your academic degree to help them achieve exceptional grades at school. If you love to teach and aspire to be completely in control of your work life schedule, IQBar is the place for you! .